Lake Gem~A Lapidot Story

Chapter 22: Pots and Pans

Peridot's POV: First Person

BEEEEEEEEEP.

"AGHHH!"

All of our heads craned towards the kitchen. On the stove, where the ramen noodles were previously cooking, was a huge fire. We all stood there, frozen.

Seeing that nobody else was planning on moving, I sprang into action. I hopped over to the cabinet under the oven and pulled out a large red fire extinguisher. Hoisting it up in my arms, I grabbed the nozzle and squeezed the over-sized trigger.

White gas shot out towards the flames with such force that it knocked me back into the oven. I started swinging the nozzle wildly towards the fire, hoping it would hit every spark.

After seeing no more flames, I released the trigger. Where the fire was, there was now what seemed to be a cloud of toxic chemicals and sadness.

No one spoke for a while after that. We all just stared at the residue from the fire extinguisher with forlorn looks.

"The ramen," Jasper muttered sadly.

Pearl wriggled herself away from Jasper and Garnet's loosened holds in a swift movement. She took one long stride towards Lapis and Amethyst. I started to walk over in case she was ready to start another fight, but she only stood there, having the advantage over Lapis by one inch.

Lapis turned her head up to meet Pearl's. "What now, bird?" Lapis snarled.

Pearl's body movement remained steady, but her face showed otherwise. "If you ever hurt Peridot-" She gestured towards the whole room. "-or anyone else here, you better be expecting hell," Pearl sneered. "Understand that, water witch?"

"I would never hurt anyone here." Lapis pointed at Pearl's face and growled. "Do you understand that?"

"Whatever," Pearl snarled back.

Lapis crossed her arms. "Good!"

"Good!"

Both girls hit each other's shoulders. Lapis headed for the stairs and Pearl went for the game room. You could hear the fast-paced thump thump thump coming from the stairs, and the loud SLAM coming from the game room door.

Jasper, Amethyst, Garnet and I stood there for god knows how long before we actually started moving again. Without talking to each other, Garnet and I made an agreement that we would clean the stove and Jasper and Amethyst would go get everyone's phones.

Garnet and I had been washing the stove silently for a while now. I was thinking of something to say when my thoughts were interrupted by Garnet clearing her throat.

"Peridot," she said calmly, "did you make up that whole story?"

I turned my head so that I could look up at her. "What? No! Well, only the rock part..." I trailed off nervously. "But everything else was true!"

"So you did faint?" Garnet asked.

"Yes."

"You did have a full on meltdown?"

"Y-yes, I guess..."

"So how in the hell," Garnet said, grabbing another paper towel, "did you get that bruise?"

I blushed. I reached over Garnet to grab a few more paper towels as well and responded, "It's true that Lapis gave it to me. But that was when we were getting the tubes and the gas, not on the jet-skii."

Garnet scanned my face for any sign of me lying. After seeing what I hoped was none, she turned away from me and continued her work. "You're going to have to explain that to Jasper and Amethyst," she stated. "Especially Pearl."